Conference FULL – we are not taking further enrolments !!!

Friday 5th February

Is teaching English an art, a science or a craft?

Jeremy Harmer | Main Hall, 17:00—17:50

Teachers are born, not made? Well if they are there is no point in training and Continual professional development!

But is it true? How much teaching is ‘art’? Are teaching instincts "God-given" or do they need to be worked on? What part does science (aka research) have to play in our professional lives? And what teaching "crafts" can we learn?

These are some of the issues we will discuss in this talk.

Biodata • Bio: Jeremy Harmer has taught in Mexico and the UK and is currently on the faculty for the MA TESOL at the New School University, New York. He has trained teachers and offered seminars all over the world.

Among his books are How to Teach Writing (2004), How to Teach English (2007), The Practice of English Language Teaching (5th edition: 2015) and the prize-winning Essential Teacher Knowledge (2012) – all published by Pearson Education Ltd. He is part of the writing team for Jetstream, an adult course for Helbling Languages.

Away from ELT Jeremy is a performer of poetry, prose and music and has recorded three CDs, Touchable Dreams (poetry and music with colleague Steve Bingham), Other Loves and More Than Ever (songs). Island, his new work for narrator, soloists, chorus and orchestra was premiered in 2015 and he is in frequent demand as a narrator/spoken word performer.

Bicycles or boiling water: changing how learners think about grammar

Language learners are lucky: most teachers around the world never really bought the idea that grammar teaching is useless, or that fluent use of standard grammar can emerge from usage in a classroom. These teachers were right. Using language communicatively works best when it is backed up by explicit learning of rules. But learning grammar rules can be seen as a dry and dusty task. Suppose learners could see the learning of grammar as an activity of discovery? Bicycles and boiling water come into this exploration of how this could happen.

Biodata • Catherine was brought up by a sceptic, and she has never got over it. She began her career in English language teaching at IH Paris in the 1970s, fresh from a degree in literature and linguistics at the Sorbonne; this may be another reason that she has always asked for the evidence behind language teaching practices. Catherine has collaborated with partner Michael Swan in developing language teaching materials such as The Oxford English Grammar Course and has served as series adviser for OUP's new Voyage series.

She has worked with teachers around the world, encouraging them to look for evidence themselves. Catherine has recently retired as an Associate Professor at the University of Oxford. She likes nothing better than seeing teachers and learners think for themselves.

Saturday 6th February

09:00—09:50

The SLA hall of fame

Scott Thornbury | Main Hall, 09:00—09:50

The relatively recent history of second language acquisition (SLA) research has produced a small number of case studies that have an almost iconic significance in the literature: you only have to mention Alberto or Wes or Nora, and scholars will know exactly what feature of language acquisition you're talking about.

In this talk I'll briefly review these "stars" in the SLA "Hall of Fame", and suggest that they still have relevance to today's classrooms.

Biodata • Scott is currently curriculum coordinator on the MA TESOL program at The New School in New York (but he lives mainly in Spain). Prior to that he spent his entire EFL career with International House: in the UK, Egypt, and Spain, as well as visiting scores of affiliates worldwide.

What we talk about when we talk about interaction

Lindsay Clandfield | Main Hall, 10:00—10:50

Learner interaction. Interactive activities and games. Interactive software and interactive whiteboards. The word "interact" and its various forms has been very popular in language education and especially in education technology. But as we are more and more surrounded by "interactive software", does this still have the capability to motivate as much as when it was new?

This talk looks what we mean now by interaction, the kinds of interaction we are currently engaging in online and the implications for the classroom. For the practically-minded, this talk will include several fun activities I have done with learners on Whatsapp, Facebook and online forums.

Biodata • Lindsay is an award-winning writer, teacher, teacher trainer and international speaker in the field of English language teaching. He has written more than ten coursebooks and is the main author of the adult course Global (Macmillan). Lindsay is the series editor of the Delta Teacher Development books and has co-written various methodology books for teachers, notably Teaching Online and Dealing with Difficulties (Delta Publishing). Lindsay is also the creative force behind various web projects including the popularblog Six Things and the e-publishing collective The Round.

Seven ways to boost your learners' confidence

Although speaking in English is invariably something that learners want to do, many find that lack of confidence remains a barrier to their learning.

This session will look at possible causes for this reticence and demonstrate motivating practical activities to help boost learners' confidence to become better English speakers.

Biodata • Antonia is an English language teacher trainer, international conference speaker and award-winning materials writer. Her special interests include the use of video and new technologies in ELT, creativity and the psychology of language learning. She has taught and trained in many countries around the world, including Italy, Spain, Hong Kong, Portugal, Poland and the UK and is a co-author for Language-to-Go, Total English, English in Common and Speakout (which won the English Speaking Union Duke of Edinburgh Award for best new book in English language teaching in 2011).

And one thing led to another... !

Gabby Maguire | Room A, 11:45—12:35

Sustained attention is the key to learning. Research indicates that people demonstrate a longer attention span on enjoyable, intrinsically motivating or fluent tasks, and that it is pedagogically efficacious to foment effortless attention through various teacher or student-led measures. (Harisimran Sandhu. IATEFL Liverpool)

In this talk I aim to show you how you can start with one text and end with another. On the way there is active reading, vocabulary, text reconstruction, guided discovery, meaningful and meaning-based grammar practice, writing and speaking. Lots of speaking! The students draw on their own personal experience and creativity to produce a lasting memory of what they have learnt and then they are encouraged to reflect on what they have done and evaluate it. The variety of skills, the relevance of the material, the partial ownership of content, the constant interaction with the material and each other, the tapping into childhood experiences and the ready-made audience all make this a motivating and memorable way to learn a language.

Biodata • Gabby has been teaching English since 1985 in International House, where she's taught all levels from Beginners to Post-Proficiency. She's the Team Leader, Exam Coordinator and a Speaking Examiner for the Cambridge Exams in First Certificate, CAE and Proficiency for the IHLS Group in Catalonia. A teacher trainer on CELTA courses, she has also been Director of Studies on summer courses in London. Apart from teaching, she has written the communication activities for course books such as Speak Out Starters, Target FCE and Cutting Edge Pre-Intermediate and Intermediate (5th ed.). A script consultant on several books, she has also written material for students learning English online.

Creating a stimulating classroom for very young learners

Lynn Durrant | Room B, 11:45—12:35

This talk is for teachers who are dealing with very young learner classes or going to be teaching children around the ages of 4 to 6 and want ideas on how to deal with this age group.

We will cover areas related to how this age group learn, their needs, how to organise the classroom, the importance of protocols to aide learning and ways to stimulate learning.

Biodata • Lynn is Head of Training for Young Learners at International House in Barcelona. She is also a Celta trainer and often works as a guest consultant for Cambridge English Teacher, giving webinars, writing articles, designing tasks and running forums for teachers of very young and young learners. Over the past three years she has been working with BBC Worldwide on an educational project for primary learners.

Getting recruitment right – and fair

Josh Round | Room C, 11:45—12:35

Recruiting teachers and getting it right is no mean feat. How to navigate through the pile of deceptively brilliant (or unerringly awful) applications? How to define what you're looking for (a great teacher, right?) and then determine whether they're sitting opposite you in interview? And then what to do when someone tells you to recruit only native teachers (even when that's against the law)?

This session will look at the ins and outs of effective - and fair- recruitment, and consider whether "native speaker" should ever feature on the job description.

Biodata • Josh Round has nearly 20 years of professional experience in ELT and has mainly worked in London-based language schools, firstly as a teacher on General and Business English courses, then as a teacher trainer on Trinity TESOL Certificate and Diploma programmes, before becoming a Director of Studies in 2005.

Josh became Trinity Diploma qualified, and later gained the English UK Diploma in ELT Management. He has been part of LONDOSA - the DOS Association in London - for many years, and became Chair in 2011; he joined the IATEFL LAM SIG Committee in 2014.

Josh is a regular presenter at conferences, has delivered training sessions for English UK, and has been involved in co-organizing several successful ELT conference events. As Director of Studies at St Giles International London Central, he enjoys the process of quality management, ensuring excellent study experiences for international students, and the challenge to continuously improve the teaching team, and develop himself.

CAE 2015 revised exam listening paper

Tom Wogan | Room D, 11:45—12:35

In this talk I shall look at the tasks in the listening paper and the underlying task construct. I will then present a variety of classroom activities related to each task. Then I will look at different extensive listening activities that teachers can use throughout a course.

Biodata • Tom Wogan currently works as a business development manager for Cambridge English Language Assessment in Catalonia and the Balearics. Prior to that he worked as a teacher at the EIM (Escola d'Idiomes Moderns) in the University of Barcelona. He has also worked as a presenter for Cambridge English. Finally, Tom doesn't believe that grammar "emerges", that you shouldn't "give the test a rest" and that there is nothing wrong with course books.

The "eyes" have it

How can we help our higher level students interact and learn from online resources? Can we really get them to see things through different "eyes"? In this workshop we'll explore five different and varied online resources and look at ways to exploit them for both content and language. This is aimed at teaching intermediate and above.

At the end of the session you should have lots of new ideas and be able to use them in your classes the following week.

Biodata • Gerard has taught English in Italy, the U.K., Serbia, Egypt and Spain. He has been a teacher trainer in the U.K., New Zealand, Mexico and Spain. He is a CELTA and DELTA trainer at IH Barcelona and a CELTA assessor. He is a co-author of Next Generation, a Bachillerato coursebook. He has also written several teacher books for McGraw Hill (Platform) and Heinle (Outcomes).

He is a board member of TESOL-SPAIN as Online Resources Officer and Webmaster. He is also an ambassador for the Disabled Access Friendly campaign.

Helping students to discover grammar rules

This workshop will build on the ideas from Friday's plenary. Teachers will work in small groups, designing activities to engage learners in thinking about grammar rules.

This will be a challenging workshop - be prepared to work hard!

Biodata • See above.

Moving stories: narrative and the moving image in ELT

Kieran Donaghy | Room A, 12:40—13:30

Narrative and moving images are powerful tools in language teaching and learning. In this practical session we will look at a range of motivating, effective classroom activities inspired by short films, and videos which encourage students to create their own narratives.

Participants will get a number of highly practical ideas to take away and use with their own students.

Biodata • Kieran is a teacher, trainer and award-winning writer with a special interest in the use of film in education. His website on the use of film in language teaching Film English won a British Council ELTons Award for Innovation in Teacher Resources, the most prestigious European media in education prize the MEDEA Award for User-Generated Media in 2013, and an English Speaking Union Award in 2014. Kieran is the author of the methodology book on the use of film in language teaching Film in Action (DELTA Publishing).

Fun, communicative activities for adolescents

Rosie Burke | Room B, 12:40—13:30

There is nothing worse than a sullen, laid back teens class. Getting them to talk can be a challenge - but it's not impossible! This session will look at how to improve spoken level in class and look at what kind of subjects teens will approach with interest in order to develop conversation.

Participants can expect to go away with some good practical ideas that their classes should enjoy.

Biodata • Rosie used to work for Cambridge English Language Assessment as presenter and inspector. She left the Extraescolars Department at IH Barcelona in 2013 to take up the position of Director of IH Sabadell. Recently, she has been giving classes to English teachers through the Grup d'Experimentació per al Plurilingüisme for the Generalitat.

Important and urgent? A few thoughts about managers' time management

Ask any ELT manager and they will say they are always busy with day to day tasks, there are constant "interuptions" so projects are hard to see through, and at busy times we run around like headless chickens. We hardly have any time for reading, learning or reflection, and practically no time at all for strategising.

In this session we'll take a look at typical managers' tasks and talk about planning and prioritising, using Stephen Covey's 4-quadrant model. With any luck we'll take home some ideas about how to make better use of our time - and we may even have planned next week.

Biodata • Jenny is Academic Manager at Eastbourne School of English on the beautiful south coast of England. Jenny worked at IH Barcelona as director of studies, head of English and head of Teacher Training (for a very long time), before returning to the UK. Jenny studied the IDLTM (International Diploma in Language Teaching Management) while at IHB, and she has a Distinction in the University of Sussex Masters in ELT.

Jenny has spent many years as a volunteer in various roles for IATEFL, most recently as Coordinator of the Leadership and Management Special Interest Group. She is delighted to be invited back again to IHB to form part of the LAM strand!

Exam time: get it right!

Stephen Hasler | Room D, 12:40—13:30

In today's world a qualification can make or break your career chances, which is why it is vital for qualifications to be reliable and valid. Today we will have a brief look at how the Cambridge exams are put together and the strict quality issues that this entails, from its commissioning through to its certification and beyond.

Come prepared for a surprise or two, and bring any questions and doubts you might have.

Biodata • Stephen has worked for Cambridge English Language Assessment for 25 years. During this time he has served as a supervisor, speaking examiner, trainer of speaking examiners and area coordinator. Today he works as a consultant and presenter. A teacher of English for 35 years, he holds a post at the University of Murcia, but is on extended leave. His teaching activity now is almost entirely in the corporate sector. He is also a professional translator of books and academic articles. He co-hosted a radio program for 2 years and his latest language venture is taking him into the world of TV dubbing.

Taking the "ought" out of autonomy

Jessica Mackay | Room E, 12:40—13:30

There is little doubt that a student who has regular exposure to English in their own time will soon notice the effects on their progress. Yet, Spanish and Catalan students consistently rank among the lowest in Europe-wide surveys of contact with the target language.

This talk will explore the relationship between motivation and autonomous behaviour outside class, and look at ways we can encourage learners to engage with English without just setting more homework.

Biodata • Jessica has worked as an EFL teacher for 25 years, the last 20 at the at the Escola d'Idiomes Moderns, UB. She has the RSA DELTA and an MA in Applied Linguistics. By the time you read this she should (finally!) have finished her PhD at the University of Barcelona, specialising in motivational classroom practice.

The joy of listening

Antonia Clare | Main Hall, 14:45—15:35

Our ability to listen and understand is now widely considered to be the foundation of language acquisition and communicative ability. But in the classroom listening can be a rather torturous process, often leaving learners confused and demotivated.

This session will look at practical ways to engage students in active listening tasks which aim to bring some of the joy back to the listening process.

Biodata • See above

Talk-tools that we can use to flip our lessons

Russell Stannard | Room A, 14:45—15:35

In this talk Russell will focus on some of the key tools that allow us to Flip our classes. Screen Capture, having your own YouTube Channel and using Ted.Ed will all be covered with lots of examples of how these tools can be used for Blended Learning, Flipped Learning and even for fully distance learning courses.

Biodata • Russell Stannard is the founder of www.teachertrainingvideos.com and a NILE associate trainer. His website provides step by step videos to help teachers incorporate technology into their teaching and is used by around 300,000 teachers a year. He received the Times Higher "Outstanding Initiative in ICT" award and the British Council ELTons Technology award for his work in technology. He writes regular columns in the ET Professional and the Teacher Trainer and is a regular speaker at conferences around the world.

Real life communication

Jade Stevens | Room B, 14:45—15:35

In this age of fast-changing technology and global communities, students have an even greater need to use English to communicate. How can we help students -- particularly teenagers -- convert what they know about the language into actually doing something with it?

In this talk we will look at ways of exploiting resources for real communication in order to help students interact outside the classroom in real life contexts.

Biodata • An experienced teacher and trainer, Jade has worked for The British Council in Europe, The Middle East, and North Africa. He has delivered Cambridge Training courses and trained Primary and Secondary teachers in various parts of the world. He currently works as a Teacher Trainer for Macmillan Education ELT.

Lost in translation - when communication with our students and clients goes wrong and what we can do about it

Fiona Thomas| Room C, 14:45—15:35

Communicating effectively with our students and clients is essential if we want to increase the likelihood of them having a positive experience with our language teaching organisations. However, breakdowns in communication are all too frequent leading to misunderstandings, disappointment and an experience which is regrettably not as optimal as it could be.

This talk will analyse the different reasons for why this happens and importantly look at techniques which will help to address this and make sure that we communicate relevant information in an effective way at the most appropriate time.

Biodata • Fiona has been working in ELT management positions for the last 18 years. She has managed a Cambridge exam centre, been the Director of Studies of a language school in Barcelona and is currently Director of Education for Net Languages, an online language school. She has extensive experience of managing different types of clients and students from all over the world. She blogs about management related issues and has co-written the e-bookManaging Education in the Digital Age.

The confidence to stand up and talk!

At school, students are often asked to give a presentation on a specific topic. Presentations are also common in business contexts. Yet, regardless of age, many find this challenge nerve-wracking. Course materials provide long lists of "useful phrases", how to use visuals effectively, and so on, but still our students lack the confidence to speak in public. What my students specifically need is how to get started, engage their audience, keep their listeners involved, and, not least, how to end effectively.

This workshop will look at hooks and tools you can use to help students not just survive but succeed!

Of interest to teachers of business English and teenagers.

Biodata • Rachel is a freelance teacher, trainer, and materials writer, and has taught in Spain, the UK, Slovakia and Hungary. Most recently she has taught BA and MA students at ELTE University in Budapest (methodology, cultural studies & communication skills) and Business English and one:one. She is also a CELTA, and LCCI trainer. Rachel is co-author of the OUP's Business one:one series, and co-author of the new edition of OUP's International Express (Pre-Int., Upper-Int.). Rachel has written a number of Teacher's Books for OUP (Navigate, Business Result, International Express and Business Vision). She is also co-author of The Business Advanced (Macmillan).

Making your toenails twinkle

In this interactive talk Alan will share some poems with us, accessible poems he has used with his learners and which in turn have inspired them to play with grammar and vocabulary and to create "learner poetry" of their own. Such encounters with poetry and the creative moments they can inspire not only extend learning and make it memorable but can also transcend language and may even "make your toenails twinkle".

Alan also argues that such opportunities for productive creativity in the classroom should be an integral part of the foreign language syllabus and suggests three conditions for making such activities effective: appropriate scaffolding; an explicit link to syllabus language items; and the engagement of "the whole person".

Biodata • Alan has been a full-time EFL teacher and trainer for... a very long time. British by birth, and a product of IH Rome by training, he is based on the island of Malta where much of his work nowadays consists of training and developing other teachers from Malta and beyond, both in mainstream education and in language schools. He is the serving President of the Malta Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (MATEFL) and regularly contributes articles to teacher publications in Malta and the UK. In 2014 he was awarded the Inspiring ELT Professional award in recognition of his contribution to Malta's ELT industry. Outside ELT, Alan is passionate about warm sea, sunshine and... Burnley Football Club.

This workshop will demonstrate how on-line technologies can be exploited to supplement classroom speaking activities so as to improve language students' oral production and speaking interaction skills.

Participants will consider a selection of typical classroom speaking activities and endeavour to: i) classify what kind of on-line communication tool would be most appropriate to create a supplementary on-line task; ii) plan an example task following on-line task creation criteria. Participants will also consider how this technology facilitates more effective task performance feedback, and discover how speaking practice can be extended beyond the physical and temporal boundaries of the traditional classroom.

Biodata • Troy has worked in ELT for over a decade, as general English and ESP teacher, as a Director of Studies, and most recently as an eLearning Consultant for the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Working with projects in the ELT classroom

Lola Thomson-Garay| Room B, 15:45—16:35

A second language is best acquired when students use it in real-life situations. As such, how can we make the learning of a second/foreign language more project-oriented in order to make learning more meaningful?

In this session, for teachers of children still in primary, we will look at the basis of PBL, practical resources and ideas for scaffolding, and the practical ways in which PBL plays an important role in our students' linguistic, cognitive, and social development.

Biodata • Lola is a teacher, and a teacher trainer. She has been in education for the last 13 years. She manages academic programmes, publishes classroom material and delivers professional development workshops, in main stream education and language teaching. She is part of a research team at the UAB that focuses on peer tutoring in education. She is also partner in a training consultancy and develops academic and teacher training programs in educational institutions from primary to tertiary.

Leading from within the team

Loraine Kennedy| Room C, 15:45—16:35

As you progress from being a full time teacher into a more academic management role, one of the new and complex set of challenges you face is in managing other people. This talk will focus on the theme of leadership. What are the key success factors to getting the most out of each and every person working with you?

This talk will review the typical challenges that arise in educational people management, in particular related to motivation, development and resistance, and offer some suggestions on dealing with them. The talk will also provide an opportunity for audience reflection and discussion on the subject.

Biodata • Loraine is an independent educational consultant, coach and trainer, with more than 25 years' international and UK experience. She has worked with organisations such as the British Council and the Bell Educational Trust. She now runs her own training and development services for a number of tertiary institutions, private ELT organisations and professional associations such as EAQUALs and English UK. She is also a member of the IATEFL LAMSIG Committee.

Her current assignments focus on designing and running development programmes for managers and teachers in order to create the quality educational establishments needed to meet the demands of the modern world.

IELTS - A known unknown

Bob Flory| Room D, 15:45—16:35

You've probably heard about IELTS, but what exactly is it? Globally it's huge: more than 9,000 organizations in 145 countries accept it for migration, studies and professional recognition, yet in Spain it is still relatively unknown. What is it about? Is there a listening component? What level does it test - B2? Does it go out of date? Who takes it and why? Where and when can you take it?

Come to this talk and find out the answers to all these questions and get some extra tips on how to help your students get the best results possible.

Biodata • Bob has been working in ELT for 30 years, first as a teacher and DoS at IH Barcelona–Diagonal, and then as Director of IH Barcelona's Company Training department.

In February 2015, when IH Barcelona became an IELTS Official Test Centre and part of the IDP global network of IELTS centres, he was appointed as IELTS Administrator and project leader. In November IH Barcelona won IDP’s "Best Audit, New Test Centre" award.

A pedagogy of possibilities vs a pedagogy of conformity

Chaz Pugliese | Room E, 15:45—16:35

In teaching, there are always new challenges: creative teachers manage them with great aplomb. Creative teachers constantly reinvent themselves and adapt their teaching styles and strategies to suit the great diversity that governs the classroom. Teaching creatively, defined as teachers using imaginative approaches to make learning more interesting, exciting and effective« (NACCCE, 1999), is a complex endeavor requiring a broad array of skills and dispositions. In my talk I will argue that one way to teach more creatively is to look at teaching as a problem solving activity and to adopt a growth mindset (Dweck, 2007).

This is a participatory talk and colleagues will be invited to experience numerous examples of creative exercises which will be easy to use, require no photocopying and may make learning fun and memorable.

Biodata • I'm a trainer, presenter and author working out of Paris. Past Director of Teacher Training at Pilgrims, I've been a regular presenter at internatonal conferences over the years, have trained teachers in over 30 countries and have contributed articles/papers to several ELT journals and magazines. My first book, Being Creative: the Challenge of Change in the Classroom was published by DELTA in 2010. Principled Communicative Approach written with Zoltàn Dörnyei and Jane Arnold, was published by Helbling in February 2015. I'm currently working on a third book, on motivation.

I'm a founding member (with Alan Maley) of the C-group (Creativity for a Change). A keen jazz/blues guitarist, I like any music that's raw, honest and real.

16:45—17:35

Meaning matters

Vaughan Jones | Main Hall, 16:45—17:35

Learning How to Mean by language study pioneer Michael Halliday was a 1970s account of early language learning that had a profound affect on me. There have been many, many other influences since then but the title still resonates. It neatly encapsulates what, for me, is our primary purpose as language teachers – helping our students learn how to mean.

In this talk, I will share some of the classroom activities I have used to help my students mean better. In particular, I will show you exercises and tasks involving personalization – a loaded term these days! Taking my learners as the starting point and drawing on their experiences, thoughts and opinions has usually worked for me. Is that true for you?

Biodata • Vaughan Jones has been involved in English language teaching, training and materials writing for over 30 years. He has lived and worked in France, Japan and Spain and given workshops to teachers all over the world. He is co-author, with Sue Kay, of various course books including the Inside Out series (Macmillan) and Focus, recently published by Pearson.

He now lives near Oxford where he divides his time between teaching, training, writing and a hectic family life.

YouTube youth culture for grown-ups

Jamie Keddie | Room A, 16:45—17:35

In the last few years, online video has been embraced and reinvented by young people. In this practical talk, I would like to examine a number of recent case studies and present some original activities which will introduce you to YouTube youth cultures.

Be warned - you may be shocked!

Biodata • Jamie is a teacher trainer, writer and storyteller. He is the founder of lessonstream.org, a resource site dedicated to the use of video and other visual materials in the classroom. His publications include Images (OUP, 2009), Bringing Online Video into the Classroom (OUP, 2014) and Videotelling (2016).

Things I used to believe (and some I still do)

35 years ago I did the RSA Prep Cert (now the Cambridge CELTA), got a job and put into practice what I'd been told to do in the classroom. I carefully avoided the things I'd been told NOT to do. Since then I’ve tried out all sorts of approaches, techniques and activity types. More importantly I've watched my students' reactions to all these; some I've retained, some I've abandoned and some I expect I've simply forgotten.

In this workshop we will be looking for rationale underlying our teaching approaches and reappraising the validity of how we help our students go about learning, and the way we use all of these bundled techniques.

Biodata • Roger works at IH Barcelona. He has been a teacher, teacher trainer and educational manager for over thirty years, and has worked in many parts of the world. He is particularly interested in Ancient and Medieval History (yes, there is a life outside ELT!).

Yes we can! Not drawing, just representing

Tom Walton| Room C, 16:45—17:35

As a teacher, you don't need to be able to "draw". But this practical workshop is designed to show those of you who think you can't draw how to "adequately represent", which is what you should aim for. Being able to "represent" is a creative and, above all, time-saving skill that it's well worth developing for classes and activities of all kinds -- teaching vocabulary (or tenses), games, storytelling, business English or a conversation class (not to mention note-taking at conferences!)

Included in the workshop, activities you (and your learners, of any age) could use basic "drawing" skills for, plus practical tips to get you started and to develop your skills further.

Biodata • Tom taught his first language class with a blackboard and chalk in Barcelona in 1979 but now teaches more hours of technology than he does English, mostly at IH Barcelona. He doesn't (and can't !) draw; what he does is doodle, which is more than adequate for most language teaching purposes.

You will find articles by Tom on the Tech Tools section of onestopenglish.com but this session is strictly no-tech and PowerPoint-free!

Read it quickly! Don't worry if you don't understand it all

Vicki Anderson| Room D, 16:45—17:35

Reading is crucial to learning a language, both inside and outside the classroom, but do we go about it in the right way with our students? When was the last time you read an article for gist? Do we really skim and scan? The perceived EFL wisdom says "We read different texts in different ways" but how true is that? What kind of texts work best for what, and what is the best way to check or help students with comprehension? Does it depend on the text? The aim? Are the course books we use a help or a hindrance?

In this talk I will be looking at these questions and trying to come up with some answers and practical suggestions. I will look at different types of texts and comprehension tasks as well as how to use them and get MORE out of them. And hopefully, enable your students to get more out of them too!

Biodata • Vicki has been an EFL teacher since 1983, as well as dabbling in admin and a long stint as a teacher trainer. She still enjoys teaching regularly as well as being a trainer on DELTA courses. She has spent the last few years writing secondary school workbooks for CUP: Smart Planet for ESO and Next Generation for Bachillerato. Vicki has given workshops on a wide range of issues, based on her experience of working with teachers and learners.

Reflective practice: from thinking to doing

Kat Robb| Room E, 16:45—17:35

Just how often do we pause to stop and think about what we are doing and why we are doing it? Many educators have embraced reflective practice as a part of their ongoing professional development, but what about the learners?

In this talk I share some research about learners becoming reflective practitioners, as they analyse, reflect and implement changes to improve their oral communication skills.

Biodata • Kat is a teacher, a learner and an avid language lover. She has spent most of her teaching life in Spain, but has also taught in France, UK, Japan, China, Chile and Brazil. Her main field of interest is educational technology so she teaches and trains online, as well as face-to-face Trinity Cert training and EAP & Business teaching. She shares her ideas at conferences and on her blog, englishandtech.com.

Future present

Nicky Hockly | Main Hall, 17:40—18:30

In this closing plenary, we end by looking ahead. Futuristic technology is not just the provenance of Hollywood movies. In many ways, the future is already present and here with us today. We will examine how futuristic technologies such as robots, haptics, wearable technology and more are becoming a part of our daily lives. Most importantly, we examine what this might mean for language teachers both now and in the future.

Biodata • Nicky is Director of Pedagogy of The Consultants-E, an award-winning online training and development organisation. She has worked in the field of ELT since 1987, is an international plenary speaker, and gives workshops and teacher training courses for teachers all over the world. Nicky writes regular columns on technology for teachers in ETP (English Teaching Professional) magazine, and in the ELTJ (English Language teaching Journal). She has also co-written several prize-winning methodology books about new technologies to language teaching. The latest of these are Going Mobile (2014), and Focus on Learning Technologies (forthcoming, 2016). Nicky lives in Barcelona, and is a technophobe turned technophile.

Enrolment

To reserve your place, please complete the enrolment form (.pdf) and send it to us, either by fax or by email, together with proof of payment.

With the support of:

IATEFL Leadership and Management SIG and the Departament d'Ensenyament de la Generalitat de Catalunya

This year we are delighted to be able to run the Management Stream at our conference in collaboration with the IATEFL LAMSIG (Leadership and Management Special Interest Group).

Among others, the sessions given by Jenny Johnson, Josh Round, Loraine Kennedy and Fiona Thomas will be of interest to those of you who are a DoS, director or senior teacher working in a management position in your school.

Enrolment CLOSED

Price

Friday and Saturday €80
Saturday only €70

We offer a discount for ex-trainees on our CELTA, CELTA Young Learner extension, DELTA and IDLTM courses (both days, €72; Saturday only €63).

Plenary sessions

Catherine Walter

Jeremy Harmer

Lyndsay Clandfield

Nicky Hockly

Scott Thornbury

Adults / General Interest

Alan Marsh

Antonia Clare

Catherine Walter

Chaz Pugliese

Gabby Maguire

Gerald Mclouglin

Jessica Mackay

Kat Robb

Rachel Appleby

Roger Hunt

Tom Walton

Vaughan Jones

Vicki Anderson

LAMSIG / Management

Fiona Thomas

Jenny Johnson

Josh Round

Loraine Kennedy

Technology

Jamie Keddie

Kieran Donaghy

Russell Stannard

Troy Dagg

Testing and exams

Bob Flory

Stephen Hasler

Tom Wogan

Young Learners

Feedback from 2015
Just wanted to say what a FANTASTIC conference you all put together this year. It was fun, informative, intellectual, practical, enlightening and thought-provoking. Not to mention organized and professional. Bravo!